Rules for Submission

The RCA receives unpublished and original contributions in Spanish that contribute to the advancement of anthropological knowledge or related social sciences. Manuscripts submitted should not be in the process of being evaluated or have editorial commitments with any other publication. Manuscripts must be in Spanish and sent on the dates stipulated by each call.

The journal does not evaluate contributions from social sciences or humanities outside the scope of the RCA (psychology, economics, literature, philosophy, education sciences), nor from the exact and natural sciences. Likewise, manuscripts that are simultaneously being considered for publication in other journals, or that bear considerable similarity to previous works by the author, will not be processed. It also does not accept multiple submissions from the same author, nor manuscripts from authors published by the RCA within a time frame of less than two years.  

Manuscripts submitted to RCA must be in Spanish and sent via the journal's website (Open Journal Systems) within the deadlines established for each call for submissions. The button for submitting new manuscripts is only enabled during the period of each call for submissions. 

Submission Types

The text submitted to the RCA must clearly state, in the first few pages, its central argument and the sections it contains. It must also belong to one of the following categories:

1) Scientific research article: a document that presents the original results of research projects in a detailed and clear manner.

2) Reflection article: a document that presents the results of completed research and seeks to open up new and provocative lines of inquiry aimed at reformulating or questioning principles of studies and traditions in the disciplinary field.

3) Review article: document resulting from completed research that analyzes, systematizes, and integrates the results of published or unpublished research in our field of research in order to report on advances and development trends. This type of contribution is characterized by offering a careful and extensive bibliographic review.

4) Short article: brief document that presents original preliminary or partial results of a research project.

5) Case report: a document that presents the results of a study on a particular situation in order to share the technical and methodological experiences considered in a specific case. It includes a systematic review with commentary on the literature on similar cases.

6) Book reviews: reviews should be critical and focus on books that are current and/or relevant to anthropology or the social sciences and humanities. By critical reviews, we mean texts that not only summarize the books, but also present their relationship to the traditions in which they are framed. In particular, it is important to state the contributions, differences, and similarities with other similar studies. Additionally, reviews should focus on texts that have not been sufficiently reviewed (unless a critical dialogue with other reviews is established).

7) Visual essays: visual essays think with, from, and through images to contribute to the production of knowledge by approaching anthropological problems and ethnographic research contexts. These contributions should have 5–10 images (photographs/illustrations) that bear witness to original research and include texts of 2,000-3,000 words. Images must comply with the technical and copyright requirements described in “Graphic Material.” 

General Guidelines

Manuscripts must be written completely anonymously (the submitted document must not contain any information or metadata that could reveal the author/co-author of the article). The authors' biographical summary must be provided in a separate document and include: the author's full name or list of authors, current institutional affiliation, ORCID link, email address, and contact telephone number. 

After submitting the contribution, the journal understands that the author/co-author accepts both the journal's standards and ethics and agrees to comply with them. Likewise, it understands that the author/co-author will respect the observations made by the external peer reviewers and the RCA editorial team within the deadlines indicated by the journal. Compliance with these requirements is essential to continue with the evaluation process. 

In the case of articles, authors may propose up to 5 international and/or national referees with expertise in the subject of the manuscript and without conflict of interest, whom the journal may contact.

Once the article has been approved for publication, the journal's editorial team will send the authors the “License for the publication of articles in ICANH journals,” which includes the “Automatic and limited license that the author grants to ICANH, through its Publishing House” and the “Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.” The document must be signed before publication. 

Formal requirements

Original articles submitted for consideration by the journal must comply with the following formal requirements:

1. Original

The text must be submitted in Word format, fully digitized in 12-point Times New Roman font, 1.5 spacing, on letter-size paper (21.5 x 28 cm), with 3 cm margins on all four sides. 

All pages of the document must be numbered consecutively, starting with the first page. The first page of articles must include: title, abstract (not exceeding 150 words), and keywords (maximum 6), all in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. 

The abstract must include the following attributes: methodology or approach of the study; results; limitations of the study/implications; originality/value; findings/conclusions.

Regarding the selection of keywords, we suggest using descriptors that are included in a thesaurus. A free one for the social sciences is available from UNESCO: http://vocabularies.unesco.org/browser/thesaurus/es/page/concept380

Articles should have a maximum length of 9,000 words, including footnotes and the list of references. The count excludes the title, abstract, and keywords already described.

Bibliographic reviews should not exceed 3,000 words, including footnotes and the list of references.

2. Graphic material

If maps, illustrations, photographs, figures, or any type of image are included in the document, a digital file of each must be sent in TIFF or JPG format, with a minimum resolution of 300 DPI (dots per inch) and a size of 17 cm x 24 cm.

Graphs resulting from statistical data or measurements must be submitted only in Excel format, and all text appearing in them must be editable.

The source of each image, graph, or map must be clearly indicated at the bottom. If the images are not your own or in the public domain, the procedures and payments for reproduction rights must be managed and assumed by the author of the article.

The RCA will not reproduce graphic materials that do not have full permission for publication from the copyright holders/custodians, or that do not meet the technical quality requirements described above.

3. Footnotes and In-text citations

Footnotes should be no longer than 10 lines and should be limited to supplementing relevant information in the text; they should not be bibliographic notes. 

Bibliographic citations, whether textual or paraphrased, should be included within the text, following the criteria set out in The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition, for example: “...” (Rodríguez 1978, 424). Quotations of up to 40 words should be enclosed in quotation marks, and those exceeding this length should be written in a separate paragraph, indented on the left. Within quotations, square brackets with ellipsis indicate omissions “[...]”.

3.1. Citation according to number of authors 

When the cited work has two authors, the citation in parentheses follows this model: (López and Arango 1970, 33). In the case of three or more authors, et al. is indicated in parentheses: (Pinzón et al. 1993). If there are two or more references by the same author, a letter is used to distinguish them: (Díaz 1998a, 1998b). If an idea refers to several works by different authors, the surnames should be organized alphabetically: (Benencia 2009; Courtis and Pacceca 2010; Parella 2007).

3.2. Citation of personal or unpublished communications

Citations of interviews or unpublished communications follow the model: 

“Rosa Blanco maintains that...” (personal interview, Cali, 2022).

3.3. Citation by title (legal documents and works without a known author)

When the cited work has no known author (news articles, interviews, blogs, etc.) or when it is a legal document, the reference in parentheses is made by title and year:

“...” (“Paro camionero" 2024) 

“...” (“Resumen Plan Restauración" 2019, 12)

3.4. Citation of books published in several volumes

According to Marx, “...” (1973, 2: 126).

3.5. Second-hand citation

Villaverde argues that... (cited in Mejía Duque 1977, 37).

3.6. Citation of archival sources

References to this type of source should include the acronym of the archive, followed by the divisions in which the document is located (sections, collections, etc.) and specific details (files, folders, folios, etc.), from general to specific:

“As stated in the investigation into the attempted suicide of Toribio Bernal, prisoner in the Santafé jail [...]” (AGN, C, C-J, leg. 6, doc. 25, f. 438 r.).

4. References

The “References” section systematically presents the bibliographic information of the works cited in the manuscript and is restricted to them. The section must comply with the standards of The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition, and follow a strict alphabetical order.  

Unlike other citation systems, Chicago requires the full names of authors to be included. If there are six or more authors, the first five are cited, followed by the expression et al. Works available on the internet must include a stable URL or DOI. References by the same author are ordered by year of publication in ascending order: 

Domingues, Ângela. 2012. “In a World without Faith and Dominated by Ambition: representations of Brazil and the Portuguese in the First Half of the Eighteenth-Century European Travel Literature”. Culture & History Digital Journal 1 (2): m104. https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2012.m104   

Domingues, Ângela. 2013. “Oficiais, cavalheiros e concorrentes: o ‘Brasil’ nas viagens de circum-navegação do século das Luzes”. Revista de Indias 73 (258): 365-398. https://doi.org/10.3989/revindias.2013.012   

Mendoza Hernández, Diana Carolina. 2020a. “Apropiación territorial en la vivienda social gratuita. Barrio Llano Verde en la ciudad de Cali”. Master's thesis, Ecuador, Quito. http://hdl.handle.net/10469/16737 

Mendoza Hernández, Diana Carolina. 2020b. “Encuentro de territorios en la vivienda social gratuita. Barrio Llano Verde, Cali”. Quid 16. Revista del Área de Estudios Urbanos 16 (14): 311-325. https://www.redalyc.org/journal/5596/559673484015/html/   

4.2. Guide to referencing the most common types of text:

4.2.1. Books

Butler, Judith. 2005. Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly. Harvard University Press.

Cañizares-Esguerra, Jorge, Matt D. Childs and James Sidbury, eds. 2013. The Black Urban Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade. University of Pennsylvania Press.

Chaves, Margarita, comp. 2013. La multiculturalidad estatalizada. Indígenas, afrodescendientes y configuraciones de Estado. ICANH. 

CNMH (Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica). 2013. ¡Basta ya! Colombia: memorias de guerra y dignidad. CNMH.

Gifford, Douglas and Pauline Hogarth. 1976. Carnival and Coca Leaf: Some Traditions of the Peruvian Quechua Ayllu. St. Martin's Press.

Marx, Karl. 1973. El capital. Vol. 1. Translated by Wenceslao Roces. FCE. 

Rose, Carol. 1994. Property and Persuasion: Essays on the History, Theory, and Rhetoric of Ownership. Routledge. 

Salcedo Fidalgo, Andrés and María Teresa Salcedo Restrepo, eds. 2023. Fricciones II: etnografía urbana y grupos etarios, seguridad y sexualidades. ICANH; Universidad Nacional de Colombia. 

Uribe, Carlos, Jimena Rojas, Alberto Cuenca, Patricia Sevilla, Óscar Quintero, et al. 2008. Proyecto investigativo para la Ruta de la Marimba. Fundación Valle.

4.2.2. Chapter or other part of an edited book

Massumi, Brian. 2010. “The Future Birth of the Affective Fact. The Political Ontology of Threat.” In The Affect Theory Reader, edited by Melissa Gregg and Gregory Seigworth, 52-70. Duke University Press.

4.2.3. Journal Articles

Bjorkdale, Annika and Kristine Hoglund. 2013. "Precarious Peacebuilding: Friction in Global-Local Encounters." Peacebuilding 1 (3): 289-299. https://doi.org/10.1080/21647259.2013.813170  

Caimmi, Nuria. 2024. “La desigualdad racial del modelo agroalimentario: análisis en el cordón fruti-flori-hortícola platense.” Revista Salud Colectiva 20: e5329. https://doi.org/10.18294/sc.2024.4899  

Crapanzano, Vincent. 2003. “Reflections on Hope as a Category of Social and Psychological Analysis.” Cultural Anthropology 18 (1): 3-32. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3651582   

Morales, Natalia Soledad, Paula Galligani and Gustavo Barrientos. Forthcoming. “Diagénesis en los niveles de organización más bajos del hueso: estado de la cuestión y vías de abordaje en estudios zooarqueológicos.” Revista Colombiana de Antropología.

4.2.4. News or magazine article

Kalmanovitz, Salomón. 2024. “La débil reactivación”. El Espectador, October 21. https://www.elespectador.com/opinion/columnistas/salomon-kalmanovitz/la-debil-reactivacion/ 

“Paro camionero: Minsalud rechaza bloqueos al paso de personal médico y ambulancias”. 2024. El Espectador, September 4. https://www.elespectador.com/salud/paro-camionero-minsalud-rechaza-bloqueos-al-paso-de-personal-medico-y-ambulancias/  

4.2.5. Lecture or Presentation

Iraola, Eduardo Javier. 2010. “La Dirección General de Tabacos. Buenos Aires (1787-1820)”. Presentation at the XXII Jornadas de Historia Económica, Asociación Argentina de Historia Económica, Río Cuarto, Argentina. 

4.2.6. Thesis or dissertation

Amador, Marcela. 2016. “De tulpas, mojanos, vacas y justicia: una etnografía histórica de las experiencias de violación sexual de las mujeres nasa del norte del Cauca, Colombia”. Master's thesis in Social Anthropology, Institute of Higher Social Studies, National University General San Martín, Buenos Aires.

4.2.7. Web page

“El silencio de las gaitas”. N. d. Coljuristas. https://coljuristas.org/elsilenciodelasgaitas/index.html    

JEP (Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz). N. d. “Hoja de datos caso 08”. https://www.jep.gov.co/macrocasos/caso08 

4.2.8. Blogs

Botelho, Maurílio and Marcos Barreira. 2022. “Ainda sobre o ‘milagre Chinês’ (I)”. Boitempo (blog), January 12. https://blogdaboitempo.com.br/2022/01/12/ainda-sobre-o-milagre-chines/?fbclid=IwAR3lADAy7ZrkI1UtymT2E6gPkLDvPnziqpXiAaiTjL1E-FER6WLrOYHTXvF0#_ftnref2  

“Plan de vida ‘Llanoverde’”. 2020. Procesos Sociales Integrales (blog), april 6. https://procesossocialesintegrales.wordpress.com/2020/04/06/plan-de-vida-llano-verde/  

4.2.9. Online Multimedia

Cajiao Lenis, Guillermo, dir. 1984. Río Magdalena, fuente de energía. Documentary published on YouTube by Colombia Antigua, June 28, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K0FZIFh7Gk  

“En Llano Verde (Cali) han asesinado más de 200 niños en condiciones extrañas, lideresa de Afrodes”. 2020. Video published on YouTube by Colombia+20, september 2.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfW8mCy49zo&ab_channel=Colom-bia%2B20  

Serpentine Galleries, dir. 2020. “Hans Ulrich Obrist in Conversation with Tim Ingold—The Understory of the Understory”. Video published on YouTube by Serpentine, december 10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU8Q_Zd0ubw  

4.2.10. Podcast

Tripailaf, Hermelinda, Carla Ruiz, Gabriela Martínez, María Paula Díaz and Paula Cecchi. 2021. “Tükúlpanien (traer a la memoria)”. Gemas memoria, june 1. Podcast. https://gemasmemoria.com/2021/06/01/tukul-panien